Large Crowds Expected At Fort Smith Gun Show

Organizers and vendors anticipate large crowds at a Fort Smith gun and knife show this weekend.

Organizers and vendors anticipate large crowds at a Fort Smith gun and knife show this weekend.

Local vendors, along with those from Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas and Tennessee, will have 300 tables set up today and Sunday at Kay Rodgers Park, 4400 Midland Blvd., showcasing guns and ammunition of all kinds, along with other items such as knives and jewelry, event organizer Carl Gross said. Hanging Judge Productions is the event organizer.

Attendees will be able to purchase guns and ammunition, trade their firearms or get them appraised for free. Gross, who runs the show twice a year with another scheduled for Oct. 5-6, said he anticipates it will be one of the largest the city has seen.

“It’ll be wild and woolly, there’s no doubt about it,” Gross said.

Gross said attendance at gun shows has risen over the years, in part thanks to proposed changes in federal gun legislation.

“The crowds right now are the largest they’ve ever been,” Gross said. “It’s connected directly to the president wanting to ban certain weapons, do away with certain ammo, and people are buying every piece of ammo that they can find.”

In January, President Barack Obama unveiled proposals in an effort to curb gun violence in the wake of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. Those proposals include universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, along with 23 executive orders.

Although no federal statistics on gun sales exist, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives counted 6.5 million guns manufactured in the U.S. in 2011, compared to 5.5 million in 2010.

John Hickman, a vendor at the show and owner of the Gun Rack, 2718 Towson Ave., said sales have skyrocketed at his store.

“It’s just crazy,” Hickman said. “Everything is flying off the shelves. We can hardly get hold of enough to sell.”

Because supply has been limited because of an increase in gun sales nationally, Hickman said he has sold a significant amount of gun accessories, including scopes, stocks, grips and triggers.

Hickman said federal law requires all licensed gun dealers to run a background check before any sale. At a gun show, a customer needs to provide a state form of ID and the licensed dealer will have a direct line to someone at the FBI who will run the person’s name and report back if it cleared, Hickman said.

The response is usually almost immediate, Hickman said, but sometimes it can take longer.

“After Sandy Hook, we couldn’t get an answer for three or four days,” Hickman said. “We had paperwork stacked up here, so the customers had to put down money on a gun until it was approved.”

Private individuals who wish to sell firearms or ammunition at a gun show are not required to run a background check, but there are federal restrictions on whom they can sell to, said Tim Garrett, host of High-Caliber Radio on KFPW-AM in Fort Smith.

“Firearms are private property in the state of Arkansas,” Garrett said. “If you want to sell one to me and you live in Arkansas and I’m not a felon, then you can sell it to me. You don’t have to go through a dealer, and all the sales are not controlled by the state.

“If you want to put it in the Thrifty Nickel and sell it because you need to buy shoes for the baby or you’ve got medical bills or whatever, that’s perfectly legal,” Garrett said. “There are laws that govern who you can sell it to.”

Security at the show will ensure safety and prevent wrongful transactions, Gross said.

“The concern here is security. I have to have 24-hour guards there all the time and security on the doors to prevent theft,” Gross said. “I just have to control this thing the best I can.”

Sgt. Daniel Grubbs of the Fort Smith Police Department said officers are generally not assigned to patrol gun shows and that he could not recall any instances when they were needed.

“They’re federal dealers bound by federal law in how they handle their business,” Grubbs said. “I can’t think of a time when we’ve been called out for anything like that.”

Steve Jones, chairman of Arkansas Carry, said generally very little illegal activity happens at gun shows, partly because of security and partly because those who attend know that members of the ATF and FBI tend to be present.

“There’s a lot of brouhaha about gun shows,” Jones said. “You don’t find very many of the criminal element going there.”

Jones said his organization will not have a table at the show because its members are busy dealing with legislation issues, such as the city’s ban on carrying firearms in parks.

Gross said the event will be a family-friendly affair.

“We try to make this a family affair, because there’s a lot of men that won’t get to go if Mama don’t get to,” Gross said. “We take the whole family. We want the families, we want the kids there. They must be controlled by their parents of course, but we want them to start learning about firearms early in life.”

The show will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today, and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission for both days is $8, or $7 for participants who bring a firearm, with free admission for children 12 and younger, Gross said.